Best Bocadillos and Sandwiches in Madrid

El Ideal, or Bar La Ideal, sits on Calle Botoneras just off Plaza Mayor. Its own account says it's been run across several generations and decades, and the bocadillo de calamares, the fried-squid sandwich, is the reason people queue: made fresh on crusty bread, priced at €4 on the bar's own menu, and served with patatas bravas, tortilla de patata and chorizo frito on the side. Both Únicohotels' guide to Madrid's calamari-sandwich bars and La Troupe's own roundup of the same category single it out, among the handful of addresses clustered around Plaza Mayor. It's inexpensive, in the €1-10 range per person, and takeaway is available if you'd rather eat it on the move.

“mejor y más auténtico bocadillo de la ciudad”— Únicohotels (The Principal Madrid blog)

Bar Postas has worked Calle Postas, off Plaza Mayor, for more than 70 years, according to La Troupe's roundup of Madrid's calamari-sandwich bars. The same source puts its daily volume at more than three thousand bocadillos sold on an average day. Infobae included it in a separate 2025 roundup of well-known spots for the bocadillo de calamares, and the bar's own account describes it as close to all it sells alongside classic bar fare. It's inexpensive, under €25 a person, takes cards and contactless, and closes two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday.

“venden de media algo más de tres mil bocadillos al día”— La Troupe

Bar Melo's was founded in 1979 by Ramón and Encarni in Lavapiés, closed briefly in 2020, and reopened in 2021 under Ignacio Revuelta and Rafael Riqueni, with a second location added in Moncloa in 2023. The signature is La Zapatilla, a roughly one-kilo sandwich stuffed with sliced lacón and melted Galician tetilla cheese, sold by the half for €9 or whole for €16 on the bar's own menu. Croquetones de lacón round out the signature dishes. The room is casual and family-friendly, works for groups, and runs under €25 a person.

“este bocata de más o menos un kilo de peso (no exageramos) va relleno a rabiar de lacón cortado en tapas y queso de tetilla gallego”— Con El Morro Fino

Dispatch is a small comfort-food counter in Trafalgar run by Colombian chef Nico Bejarano, who has more than 20 years cooking in Spain and time at elBulli, Arzak and Paco Roncero behind him. It opened in late 2024. The counter's pastrami sandwich is the dish he refined while cooking on Celebrity Cruises ships, served two ways: classic with mustard, or Reuben-style with Hörnkäse cheese and fermented sauerkraut. Buttermilk fried chicken and burgers made with Galician beef round out the short menu. Dispatch shared the Premios Metrópoli award for best restaurant under 40 euros in 2025. It's closed Monday and Sunday, open lunch and dinner the rest of the week, and runs €26-50 a person.

Casa Bucho sits on Calle de Trafalgar in Chamberí, on the same corner of Plaza de Olavide where Mamacampo used to be, under the same ownership. The tavern menu runs from gildas and croquetas to layered millefeuille bravas, and two sandwiches sit among the shareable plates: a Smoked lacón bikini with rocket and melted Comté at €10, and a Pastrami mollete with pickled cucumber and aged cheese at €10.50. Grilled Iberian pluma and a house cocktail list round things out. It's open daily from 13:00, until midnight Sunday to Thursday and 01:00 on Friday and Saturday, with a higher bill on the terrace.

Jíbaro is an all-day Cuban and Spanish spot on Plaza de Cascorro, in the Embajadores district of central Madrid. The menu runs from breakfast tostadas and pincho de tortilla into Cuban and Spanish plates through the day, and the cubano sandwich sits alongside lechón on the bocadillos list, next to huevos habaneros and pulpo a la jíbara. Cuban cocktails round out the menu, the mojito jíbaro and the canchánchara among them. It's a casual, dog-friendly spot with no Michelin or Repsol distinction, open daily from the morning and running late on Fridays and Saturdays, to 01:00. Booking runs through TheFork.

Puccias is a casual, quick spot in Justicia built around a single idea: the puccia, a Southern Italian sourdough bread, baked fresh on-site and filled to order rather than served as one dish among many. Fillings mix international ingredients rather than sticking to one region's classics, and the format is built for a fast, good bite rather than a sit-down meal. It's affordable, running €10-20 a person, open daily with later hours on Friday and Saturday and shorter hours on Monday and Sunday.

El Punto Guay is a Venezuelan street-food spot on Calle Marcelo Usera, with a sibling location near Mercado de Barceló. The Pepito Supremo is the house sandwich, and the kitchen leans into big, shareable portions across the board: the venue bills its SÚPER SAIYAJIN pepito as a metre long and more than four kilos, a challenge aimed at anyone who always wants more. Cachapas, patacones piled with carne mechada or pollo, and the parrilla La Sabrosa round out the menu, and Sundays add sopa de cruzado, a beef-rib-and-hen soup. It opens evenings only, from 17:00 to as late as 01:00, and is closed Wednesdays. It runs €26-50 a person.

Tita de Buenos Aires is an Argentine empanada shop on Avenida de Menéndez Pelayo, across from the Retiro in the Ibiza area of the Retiro district. Founders Marcelo Settimo and Ana Antolini started it in March 2021 after moving to Madrid, and the business has since grown to several locations with its own obrador. Alongside its handmade empanadas, the counter sells sándwiches de miga, the soft-crumb Argentine tea sandwiches, in combinations like cooked ham and cheese, Serrano ham, tuna, veggie and chicken, plus homemade desserts like alfajores de Maicena, chocotorta and cheesecake. It took an honourable mention in the best gourmet shop category at the Premios Gastronómicos Metrópoli, by its own account. Opening hours and prices aren't published, so check the shop's own channels before visiting.

Michelin SelectedRepsol

Fismuler is part of the La Ancha group, founded in 2016 by three cooks out of elBulli: Nino Redruello, Patxi Zumárraga and Jaime Santianes, in a casual, industrial, candlelit room in Trafalgar. Zumárraga left at the end of 2022 and now runs Haramboure. Beyond its well-known escalope San Román and three-cheese tarta de queso, the carta lists a pork ear sandwich with brava sauce among its small plates, alongside things like a Chinese-bread red shrimp tartare and a hook-caught baby squid carbonara. It holds a Michelin Selected listing and one Sol in the Guía Repsol. Hours run Monday to Thursday 13:30 to 01:00 and Friday and Saturday 13:30 to 02:00, with lunch and dinner service inside those windows.

Bib GourmandRepsol Recommended

In-Pulso is a modernised Madrid-traditional restaurant in Legazpi, led by chef Alex de la Fuente, who trained under Santi Santamaría and Ricardo Sanz and spent five years as executive chef at Ramón Freixa's two-Michelin-starred restaurant. The menu sets out to recover forgotten Madrid recipes, and among the plates sits a calamari sandwich with citrus aioli, described on the venue's own account as a lobster-roll-style take on the fried-squid format, priced at €15. It sits alongside braised beef cheeks and quail in pepitoria sauce, Huelva red prawns and smoked trout with roe. In-Pulso holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Repsol Recomendado. It's open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch, 13:30 to 15:15, and Wednesday to Saturday for dinner, 20:30 to 22:15, closed Sundays and Mondays.